The story of Yasuke, the African samurai, has become a global Rorschach test. For Hollywood, he is a box-office premise. For gamers, a controversial character.

But for those of us engaged in global Black cinema, he represents a far more urgent question: Who has the right to tell our stories — and from what soil must those stories grow?

Donate to the BFM Online ReLaunch GoFundMe Campaign https://gofund.me/28fd35ef0 BFM’s story begins in 1974, when radical publisher Menelik Shabazz met a young Chicago photojournalist (who was documenting the world through his lens), Floyd Webb, in London, UK. Their friendship grew into a collaboration that birthed Black Filmmaker Magazine and the…